versor

Forms

versor (present infinitive versārī or versārier, perfect active versātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] Plautus has the old infinitive versārier;^[2][1] Plautus, Terence and Sallust write vors-.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is the passive of versō (“to keep turning”), used in a middle sense, “to turn oneself about”.^[2][3][1] versō is the frequentative of vertō (“to turn”),^[2] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD cites Plautus: versārī crēbrō hīc quom vidērent mē domī, “when they saw me often about the house here”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Versārī is literally “to revolve, turn about”.^[2][1] Its main use is “to be constantly in a place, move among people, live, stay” (Plautus: inter istās versārier prōsedās, “to hang about among those streetwalkers”), and “to behave” in a certain way.^[2][1] Of conditions it is “to be current, prevail” (Cicero: lands where a bitter war has gone on), of ideas “to be constantly present” (ante oculōs versārī), and in ōre vulgī versārī is to be on everyone's lips.^[2]

With in and the ablative it is “to be involved in” a condition (Terence: nescīs quantīs in malīs verser miser, “you don't know what troubles I am in, poor me”), “to be engaged in, busy oneself with” an activity, of a speaker “to dwell on” a theme, and of things “to be concerned with”.^[2][1] Church Latin glosses it “dwell, remain, live, stay, occupy oneself with”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: versārī crēbrō hīc;^[2][5] versārier.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence: quantīs in malīs verser.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of war going on in a province and of being engaged in an art.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To turn about, revolve.^[2][1]
2. To be (somewhere) constantly; to live, stay, dwell.^[2][1][4]
3. To behave, conduct oneself.^[2]
4. To prevail, be current; to be constantly present (to the mind).^[2]
5. To be involved in (a condition).^[2][1]
6. To be engaged in, busy oneself with; to dwell on (a theme).^[2][1][4]
7. To be concerned with (of things).^[2]

Word family

• conversor

Related words

• versō
• vertō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de